Repetition of Events
by FinniganToldMeTo
Summary: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead: Wasn't quite sure where to put this... but here it is. After all, they are Shakespeare characters first. Rated T because I wasn't too sure how it should be rated...


-1**This is probably the first and last time I do a RAGAD thing, but I had to give it a shot. I've just recently reread the play for the fifth time.**

**I don't own these guys. They belong to Shakespeare, who is dead, and Tom Stoppard, who kicks azz… (cringes at the last comment about Shakespeare being dead) Oh, yeah… He lives in Kansas, with Elvis, Jesus, and Tupac… sorry.**

**A Repetition Of Events**

_Two ELIZABETHANS, both well-dressed, in a room with two beds and a table._

_GUILDENSTERN (hereafter referred to as GUIL) sits at the table, spinning a coin repeatedly._

_ROSENCRANTZ (hereafter ROS) paces upstage, not noticing the other's actions much._

GUIL: It would be well to consider. This place, a forgotten cabin in a nondescript town, where we have found ourselves waking one morning. The familiarity is striking, though neither of us remembers much… _(spins the coin, catches it, glances at it, sighs, and spins it again)_ Is this home? I wouldn't know… Perhaps he… _(as if noticing ROS for the first time)_ I say, do you know where this is?

ROS: I don't remember. _(continues his pace, humming a familiar tune, the same as belongs to the TRAGEDIANS)_

GUIL: So, familiar as it is to me, it is nowhere important.

ROS: Or it is everywhere.

GUIL: Or it is everywhere. _(angry) _Oh, now that will never do! _(puts the coin down and stands, pacing the opposite direction of ROS, just downstage of him)_

ROS: _(speaking only when they cross) _Well, it would seem… that we find… familiarity somewhere… that isn't familiar.

GUIL: _(stopping) _Stop.

ROS: _(stops) _Or, coincidentally, we find familiarity in something so familiar, we've forgotten it.

GUIL: Or there is no familiarity in that which should be familiar. Or nothing familiar in something we know nothing about.

ROS: _(haltingly) _But, haven't we? Wasn't it already? _(stops, breaths, next out in one breath)_ Didn't we establish that it was already familiar?

GUIL: _(deflating) _If that's so, there isn't much hope, is there?

ROS: No, I suppose there isn't.

GUIL: A man standing in his saddle in the half-lit half-alive dawn-

ROS: Is it dawn?

GUIL: If that is east _(points front)_, then yes. But, if I'm wrong and _that_ is east _(points behind him)_, then it's dusk.

ROS: Dawn or dusk, it's darker out there than it is in here.

GUIL: _(considering) _Then, of course, that could be south. _(points front) _In which case, that _(points to his left) _is east. What help is that?

ROS: _(chuckling) _Not much. _(looks out front over GUIL's shoulder) _Well, there is the sun. So, whether it is rising or setting, it is east or west. That cannot be south, unless we're far north… then, perhaps…

GUIL: Even then it is southeast or southwest, correct? If it's rising or setting, it cannot be directly south.

ROS: _(scoffs) _Cartographers…

_A knocking at the upstage window_

VOICE: _(OS) _Rosencrantz!… Guildenstern!

ROS: _(frozen) _Perhaps he'll pass us by.

GUIL: _(quietly) _When he called, we came…

ROS: Not this time. _(desperate) _I don't remember what happens next, but I remember not wanting to do it again.

GUIL: Repetition of events. We've been here before.

ROS: I'm not going. Not this time.

GUIL: It's a summons.

VOICE: _(OS) _Guildenstern!… Rosencrantz!

GUIL: I'm going, whether you will or not.

ROS: It's fate. You're dooming yourself. I know it! _(frantic) _Don't! Don't go! _(grabs GUIL, in tears) _Don't leave me!

GUIL: Then, come with me. _(decided) _You stay, you're alone. You follow, we're together.

ROS: _(afraid, crying) _Alright.

GUIL: _(turns) _Don't cry. Please, don't cry. I know… We've done this before. It ends badly. But we must do it again.

ROS: _(calming) _If… If we must… But don't we have a choice?

VOICE: _(OS) _Rosencrantz! Guildenstern! I have a royal summons! Come along, now!

GUIL: No, we don't.

_ROS nods, stands beside GUIL. GUIL wraps an arm protectively about ROS, gently turns him, and the two walk to the door. ROS breaks from GUIL and opens the door. The door is directly upstage. The two stand on either side of the door, revealing a SOLDIER behind the door. As the SOLDIER speaks, the light fades to eventual blackout._

SOLDIER: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. You have been called upon by royal summons to the court of King Claudius and Queen Gertrude of Elsinore. Your task will be revealed upon arrival at the palace, where you will be conducted…

_BLACKOUT_

_Voices in the darkness_

GUIL: It would be east.

ROS: So, it is dawn.

GUIL: Unfortunately, for us.

**END**


End file.
